Shaded Prism
by daenabenjen42
Summary: More drabbles...
1. Week One, UDC 5

Title: Shaded Prism (Drabble Series)  
Characters: "Think clowns in a circus car."  
Timeframe: Bounces all over...  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: Happily playing in the sandbox.

Previous Drabble Challenges...

Edge of Life (UDC 3)  
Prismatic Edges (UDC 4)

* * *

Week One (May 17, 2010) - UDC 5

* * *

1. **Doctor**

* * *

It was with an air of solemness that the doctor in red scrubs followed the officer into the quiet room. As he opened one of the drawers and pulled the tray out for her to see, her composure nearly broke. It wasn't easy, but she managed to not break out into hysterical laughter at the sight of the clown costume. "Is that... dried pudding?"

The officer sighed. "Near as they could determine."

The doctor nodded. Then she paused, took a deep breath, and put her best professional face on. "Right. Never done one of these on a Bothan before."

"You haven't?"

"No." She pulled out a hardcopy book with unfamiliar lettering and set it on a near-by cart. "First time for everything, you know?"

* * *

2. **Companion**

* * *

The small, green Jedi Master had been expecting a young man. Had been, right up until he arived in the clearing and saw the woman with short hair wearing gray combat fatigues setting up camp. He watched for long moments, then shrugged. So Obi-Wan had sent the other one? That was fine with him, too.

That the young woman turned out to be a young man suffering from some kind of enchantment later on only added to the Jedi Master's amusement, as it, too, was a tool for teaching much-needed patience.

* * *

3. **Time**

* * *

In the scramble to get off of Myrkyr ahead of the Imperial fleet that would, no doubt, be arriving at any time, she didn't have to explain who the little girl was that came with them. It was maddening, knowing that her husband was injured but unable to go with him, to look after the man. She wanted to, wouldn't have hesitated for an instant, but that instant, nor the opening to go and do exactly that, never happened. Instead, she was sitting aboard the Wild Karrde, her daughter playing with a toy under the console at her feet, and avoiding Talon Karrde's side-long questioning gaze.

This was not the time for explanations. Not here, on this ship, behind an asteroid, with her daughter in arms reach, finally.

* * *

4. **Space**

* * *

The little astromech didn't mind the vacuum of space. It was just one more enviroment to exist in, to catalogue, and work in. Work right now consisted of fixing the ship so they could get away, and as other, fellow astromech droids got blown off the hull one by one, the little droid hurried faster to do so. Finally, it was done and they escaped, and it was called to a meeting before the queen. Gratitude for simple service? It... was unexpected.

* * *

5. **Dimensions**

* * *

She hesitated in the doorway to their room, simply watching as he levitated a few feet off the floor, eyes closed. It was her private pleasure, watching him like this. Unguarded. Hers. Slowly, carefully, she moved toward him. It wouldn't startle him, she knew, moving in on him like this, but better safe than sorry. Brushing him with a tendril of the Force, she felt him reach out to her as well. _Can I join you?_

He did not answer back in words, but it meant just as much. Rather, he pulled her to him and she let herself be pulled.

There, suspended in midair, they had their moment.


	2. Week One, UDC 1 - Exar Kun

**Week 1** (07.07.06) - UDC1 - Exar Kun, Invisible Sith Lord of Yavin IV

* * *

1. **beginnings**

* * *

When something changes, it is small and almost not even worth noticing. A duel. A simple duel between a man in dark clothing and a bald woman with red saber. It's nothing in the grand scheme of things, and quickly over. Neither die, and both leave your moon shortly after in varying states of disarray. Peace returns to the jungle moon, and you return to contemplating the passing of the seasons as you have done for hundreds, thousands of years.

On the jungle moon, time passes and things are simple. You exist. For now, it is enough. Enough that you exist.

* * *

2. **middles**

* * *

Change comes again as people arrive. People unlike the combatants who fought here so long ago. These ones do not, will not hear you or see you. They do not even know the history of the place they set up camp in, that it is a sacred and ancient Jedi ruin... not even as they look up at your statue, do they know what it represents.

It is maddening, being in their midst.

One day, a new person arrives with potential and you take notice. This one... will do nicely.

* * *

3. **ends**

* * *

When the occupation ends, it does so in a rush. A scramble. It is hard to tell what sets it off, but there is no question that they're leaving, even the one with vary ovbious potential. Soon enough, you are alone again on the jungle moon, left wondering what is going on in the galaxy beyond the visible stars and planet high above. What would be going on out there that so many would come and hole up here? It makes no sense!

It is the first time you have felt trapped in your own citadel. Thousands of years spent here, and it has never felt like this. As if the temple is suddenly too small.

* * *

4. **first**

* * *

The first and only to die does so defending, in his own mind, his people from you. He was a leader, simple, with potential, like the one for whom this is their second visit to what has become your prison. He wanted knowledge, you wanted a way out. Or for them to go again and not remind you of what you lost any longer. It makes no difference any more, if it ever mattered to begin with.

The warning that should have sounded alarms but fails to do even that and make them leave tells you something else, as well: the old ways have been forgotten. Lost. And the gap between what you knew of the Order and what they are relearning is unimaginable. The Order sealed you here, defeated and dead to them. Invisible. The Order... no longer exists.

* * *

5. **last**

* * *

As you are literally ripped from your citadel and things change again, you can't help but feel a moment of pride. A small thing, to be sure, but enough to lose your last bit of concentration and allow them to do what they set out to do. You are defeated again, yes, but now... there was a lesson learned. They learned to stand against darkness. Learned to be a team.

It is the defense you are going to use when judgement comes, as you know it can't be far behind.


	3. Week One, UDC 2 - Luke

**Week 1** (09.24.07) - UDC2 - Last time was Mara. This time: Luke!

* * *

1. **Smooth**

* * *

The underside of the craft was smooth as he ran his hand along it in thought. So much had happened over the past couple of days. So much in so short a time. So much that he hadn't been able to process all of it. Had it really only been three days before that he'd argued with his uncle about putting in an application to the academy? That he'd wanted off Tatooine so badly he could taste it?

He shook his head as he saw the princess coming toward him. So much, and... so much more to come.

* * *

2. **Rough**

* * *

Staring out across the assembled troops, Luke felt his breath hitch for a moment in his throat as he remembered who wasn't standing beside them, also receiving medals. People he'd known only hours, and the friend he'd known his entire life. The one who'd died in that trench, taking fire from behind. The one he'd only found out was even here just before... they were going to trade stories. Like old times.

A hand suddenly clasped his shoulder and he blinked at Han in confusion.

"Come on, Kid. Drinks are on me."

* * *

3. **Dry**

* * *

His first night back on Tatooine, and all he can think of is how dry it is. And how cold. And how alone he feels, even here in the vaguely familiar hut of a not-so-lost nor crazy former Jedi General. It is a kind of cold he'd grown up in, here in this desert, on this planet. A dry cold he'd almost forgotten in his time away moving from planet to planet one step ahead of the Empire. It is the dry cold of the Tatooine night that makes him realize his is truly home, if not for long.

* * *

4. **Wrinkled**

* * *

"Luke?"

The voice comes from far off, and he wants to ignore it. To sleep some more. To keep his eyes closed against the overwhelming brightness he's sure is on the other side of his eye lids.

"Come on, Luke. Up now, sleep later."

Was that Han, trying to give him a wake-up call? What was he doing out here?

A sigh. "Fine. If he wakes while we're moving him, we'll stop."

A word, or a mumble escaped his lips, and all Luke can do is wonder what this new wrinkle is and why Han is acting so cautious.

* * *

5. **Weathered**

* * *

In the medical quarters, Luke wakes to find Leia asleep in a chair next to his bed. He stares at her for long moments, wondering at how innocent she looks compared to how he feels inside. He feels old, numb and weathered. Had Ben known? Did Yoda know? Why hadn't they told him?

The thought made him pause, remembering how insistent Yoda had been that he not go. He'd known. Something, anyway.

Leia shifted in the chair and noticed him watching her. She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Hi."


	4. Week One, UDC 3 - Multiverse AU

**Week 1** - 9/1/08 - UDC3 - So... an AU where Luke and Callie ended up together... somewhere out there in the multiverse...

* * *

1. **Happy**

* * *

It was dusk when she finally made her way back to YavinIV's surface after her close encounter with an Imperial Admiral bent on destruction and the darkness inside herself. He was waiting for her at the hangar door, and said nothing as she collapsed into his arms with the last of her strength. There was nothing to say that would make what could have happened, what almost did, right, and no defense she can offer. Luke doesn't ask for one as he helps her inside, happy to be alive and in his arms.

Later there would be questions, but not now.

* * *

2. **Sad**

* * *

She found him in his office, staring out a window. Studying him for long minutes, she could almost feel the heaviness in the air. Something was wrong, and for the first time in a good long while she didn't want an explanation for what that something might be. Slowly, Callista joined him at the desk and took his hand. When he looked at her, eyes heavy, she simply nodded. "Bad?"

"Bad," he answered in reply.

Later he would tell her about an accident which had resulted in the death of a friend and it would make sense, but for now they sat and observed the silence.

* * *

3. **Curious**

* * *

Luke sat and watched as their daughter batted at the toys hung from the mobile as she laid on her back on a blanket, and couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever been that innocent. Or that young. Arms enfolded enfolded him from behind as Callista joined him in watching her. "Hey."

"Of course you were," she answered his unspoken thought. "Even thought it doesn't feel like it now."

He turned and blinked at his wife. "How...?"

She smiled. "I didn't need the Force to see what was obvious."

* * *

4. **Angry**

* * *

It was two days before she finally couldn't stand the unasked questions anymore. Two days during which nothing had been asked, but everything had been in question. She'd wanted to flee the entire time, and now... now all the insecurities and the anger and the pain just bubbled up from under her control.

Smashing noises drew attention and when she finally couldn't throw another thing at the walls, Callista sat down and refused to move. It hurt to think about anything but the temptation, that everything she wanted most was on the other side of darkness.

A hand startled her and she looked up to find him looking at her, understanding in his blue eyes.

* * *

5. **Content**

* * *

Nine months, twelve days, and some hours after temptation and darkness had nearly consumed her, Callista found herself surrounded by family, holding a new life in her arms. It was something she'd thought would never happen, after empty years of hiding inside the gunnery computers on the Eye. But this... this felt right. More right than anything ever had. What was it about this little one, and being part of this family that had changed everything?

Smiling down at her newborn child, Callista quietly thanked Cray for letting her have a second chance at life. The details weren't important today...


	5. Week One, UDC 4 - Roganda Ismaren

**Week 1** - 4/6/09 - UDC 4 - Roganda Ismaren...

* * *

1. **Flash in the pan**

* * *

As she sat in the waiting room, impatiently waiting for the procedure to be over so she could be let in to see her son, a sensation made her blink. It was unsettling and made the hairs on her arms stand on end, and was gone before she could adequately identify it with any certainty. Slowly, Roganda shook her head again. It was nothing. Had to be.

The sensation was forgotten when the building began to shake violently around her, forgotten as she scrambled to the door that led outside onto the street. Forgotten as she watched the building shake and felt the ground rumble.

* * *

2. **Out on a limb**

* * *

Years had passed since she'd last been here, in this place that had sheltered so many and was now a source of folk tales for the locals. Years in which the galaxy had undergone a dymnamic power shift and the downfall of everything she had come to know. As Roganga picked a training sphere up out of it's rack and stared at it, she was determined that her plan would succeed. It would take hard work, but so did everything. Everything took work to accomplish, and she'd have been a fool to think otherwise.

She placed the training sphere carefully back on the rack.

* * *

3. **Out of the blue**

* * *

She hadn't been looking for it, hadn't even thought of it in fact, when it turned up. Searching through data the Empire had left behind, which wasn't much to begin with, she'd found a reference to an unsolved case in which an unidentified childs remains had been sent to Imperial Center for processing. The case had been buried, forgotten in the system since then... and now, here she was, staring at the case report, in shock because she knew all the details.

Hands on her shoulders made her jump. "Hey, it's just me."

She glanced back at Wes, wondering for a moment about the unknown.

* * *

4. **Wet behind the ears**

* * *

It was his first day in the senate district headquarters when, reaching his new desk, he found a woman sitting with a case file. "Can I help you...?"

She looked up at him, nodded, returned her attention to the case file. "Yes. Solved this one for you. File it."

He blinked in confusion as she walked away, purpose in her stride. "File it?" Sitting down at his desk with the file in his hands, he opened it to discover a written note with information attached to the inside cover. _Name: Irek Ismaren, Age: 5.3 Years, Cause of Death: Falling debris from localized groundquake during surgery._

He stared at the note for a long while.

* * *

5. **Heat of the moment**

* * *

Quest found her sitting against a bulkhead with her chin resting on her knees, eyes staring at nothing. Frowning, he moved to sit next to her. "Roganda?"

"Don't wanna talk," she mumbled. "Don't want to think about the mission, either."

He wanted to ask her about it, but decided to wait her out. "All right..." She snagged his hand as he tried to get up again. "What?"

"Stay." And then her lips were on his.

Afterward, niether spoke of the incident again, but occasionally he caught her looking at him when she thought he wasn't.


	6. Week Two, UDC 5 - Luke and Mara

**Week Two** (May 24, 2010) - UDC 5 - Someone asked for Luke and Mara...

* * *

6. **Island**

* * *

The breeze carried the smell of the ocean to them as they sat together on beach chairs, enjoying the quiet that both knew couldn't last. Here, on this island on a midrim world, they could let themselves believe that all was well with the universe, that nothing in fact was wrong anywhere.

Mara rolled over and came face to face with him, smiling at how relaxed he was while asleep. She knew he didn't get a chance to relax often, so this was special. Just them, the beach chairs, the view, and cooling breeze to while away the afternoon.

* * *

7. **Survival**

* * *

Luke awoke alone in his beach chair and immediately wondered where she'd gone, where she was. Reaching out with the Force in a panic, he found her quickly and she reached back. He calmed down again, at once glad his first instinct was wrong.

She reappeared a minute or two later, frowning at him. "I didn't mean to leave you alone like that."

He smiled and patted the chair next to him. "And didn't mean to make you worry, either."

Mara chuckled. "What a pair we are, hmmm?"

Luke shared her chuckle. This was one of those times where it only helped to laugh at one's self.

* * *

8. **Lost**

* * *

"Did you think I was lost?" she asked after a while.

"Woke and you were suddenly not here."

"Ah. Had to use the facilities." She leaned over and kissed him softly. Then the kiss deepened and he pulled her snugly to him, untieing the knot in her sarong as he did so. _Luke, this is not a private beach!_

_But there's noone else here..._ he sent back suggestively.

Her only response was an un-lady-like giggle, as she didn't exactly disagree. Breaking the kiss, she looked at him again and smiled. "Later?"

He nodded and kissed her again.

* * *

9. **Other**

* * *

Later, in their room, she sat on the edge of their resort bed and pondered what to say as she listened to him shower. He'd unknowingly interrupted her in the middle of something with his panic, and then they'd been otherwise occupied... All too soon, the water shut off and he appeared in the doorway, wrapped in a towel. "Mara?"

She gazed at him, admiring how wonderful he looked in that towel for a moment before joining him in the doorway to the 'fresher. "Hey." Staring into his eyes, she couldn't hold it back any longer. "It's yours."

"What is?" He blinked when she led his hand to her abdomen and then looked at him meaningfully. "Oh... oh..."

* * *

10. **Flashback**

* * *

She found him sitting on the beach, watching the waves come in and recede. "Thought I might find you out here."

Luke startled and turned to look at her. "Hmm?"

"Okay to join you?"

"Always, Mara. Always." He put his arm around her and shook off the thoughts that had threatened to overtake him of things past. "Think we could stay here longer?"

"Is our vacation," she told him, smiling. "Could probably be arranged..."


	7. Week Two, UDC 1 - Irek Ismaren AU

**Week 2** (07.14.06) - UDC1 - Irek Ismaren (AU... very, very AU)

* * *

6. **hours**

* * *

In the small hours of the morning, a little boy sits, his back to a bulkhead, and shivers at memory. It is hours since the pilot found him sitting amid debris, and hours since he lost everything he ever knew. The only thing he knows right now is his name, Irek, and who the pilot and his big furry friend are. The pilot-captain insisted that he come with them, and so here he sits, on a ship that reminds him of his missing mother. Thinking about her brings everything up all over again, and he can't help but cry silently.

* * *

7. **days**

* * *

It is a few days later when they land somewhere cold and the pilot he won't call by name hands him an oversized jacket. Irek takes it, puzzled as can be, and put's it on. Then he follows the pilot down the ramp and out into a very cold and very white inside space. "Is this... snow?"

The pilot stops and looks down at him, eyebrows raised. "Yes. This your first time seeing it, Irek?"

"Yes."

The pilot nodds knowingly. "Come on. We'll check in and then find something to eat."

"Eat the snow?"

A chuckle. "Not this week, no..."

* * *

8. **weeks**

* * *

"Irek?"

He looks up from the game table to find that senator friend of his mother's looking at him in concern. "Senator?"

She sighs. "You don't have to call me that. Call me Leia."

"Momma said to be respectful." It's the first time in weeks that thinking of her hasn't made him begin to cry, but Leia pulls him into an embrace.

"I know," Leia told him. "And you are. You are."

They sit like that until yelling commences from the engine compartment, making Irek blink. "More fixing?"

"Yes," Leia sighed. "More fixing."

* * *

9. **months**

* * *

The boarding ramp was barely even down when he heard his name being yelled out by a young, excited voice. Amused and very glad to see him, Han scooped the boy up. "Woah there, Irek."

"They got you back! Just like they said they would!"

Han blinked down at him. "Yes..."

"Thought you were gone. Like Momma."

And that's when it fell into place, what this little boy had been thinking the entire time. "Well I'm back now."

"For good?"

As he walked down the boarding ramp, Han nodded. There was nothing else he could say.

* * *

10. **years  
**

* * *

It has been years since he was adopted. Years since he became Irek Ismaren Solo officially, child of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo. Years since it mattered that this family formed out of strangers seeking the same goal wasn't really his own. Years since he accepted that the dull ache of losing the only family he'd had before would always be there...

Now, as he gazes upon his new baby siblings for the first time, it feels like it should matter. Should, but as Han, now father and Dad, and not Pilot, touches his shoulder and welcomes him closer, he finds it doesn't. That it never has and never will.


	8. Week Two, UDC 2 - Gaeriel Captison

**Week 2** (10.01.07) - UDC2 - Gaeriel Captison and Pter Thanas

* * *

6.** Jedi**

* * *

The relationship had started very simply: she'd met him at his formal debriefing after... well, after. After someone she'd wanted to stay had left. He'd saved them all, had given Eppie herself back. That alone was worth loving him for.

"You seem more introspective than usual."

She glanced up, flashed a smile at her dinner partner. "It's nothing, Commander."

"I thought we were down to first names, hmmm?"

She reached for his hand, clasped it. "Of course we are, Pter. Of course."

* * *

7.** Sith**

* * *

When word arrived of something having been amiss, it was already over. She'd wanted to comm, to reach out and ask questions, and wondered why no one had thought to inform her of the situation on YavinIV. Was she really that out of the loop, here on Bakura, that... No. Thinking of it that way would only make her angry.

A hand on her arm, belonging to her husband, reminded her of the here and now. It would help no one to rush off and make a fuss about something over and done. Everything was fine now, that was what mattered.

* * *

8.** Soldier**

* * *

Sometimes, she would find him watching the stars with an unreadable expression, as if he longed to be out there in the thick of it. The moment would quickly pass, and he'd be hers again, here. She wondered what he thought during those moments, if the stars called to him, if he longed for adventure. If he did, he never voiced it. Never made her believe without a doubt that he wanted to be anywhere but where he was.

He was still a soldier, no matter how much time passed. She knew this.

* * *

9. **Civilian**

* * *

It was moments like this, where he watched and listened to her sing to their daughter in the small hours of the morning, that he was glad he'd made the choices he had. That he'd turned away from Imperial Service for good. He still longed to be among the stars, out there, but it was just that... a longing. No amount of adventure could ever replace the times spent like this, just the three of them.

And there was nothing more enchanting right now than listening to his wife sing and their little girl coo right along with her.

* * *

10.** Politician**

* * *

The service was formal. Political. He'd been a soldier, the husband of the prime minister. She wanted to not be here, in front of so many people. Wanted to be somewhere else. Anywhere else. She hadn't wanted to have a formal public funeral to begin with... this? It was agony sitting here. Grief was supposed to be a private thing... wasn't it?

She was drawn out of her thoughts when Eppie reached over and held her hand firmly, mouthing the words: _"You can do this."_

Nodding, she held onto Eppie's hand like a lifeline. She could.


	9. Week Two, UDC 3 - AT-AV

**Week 2** - 9/8/08 - UDC3 - AT-AV: All Terrain Attack Cat (AU)

* * *

**6. Alderaan**

* * *

Her person kept waving a string around for her, and every time she got ahold of it with her claws, they vied for control of it. It was a game with her person, one they did every day together. Suddenly a noise spooked her and the string was forgotten in favor of a nice, dark place to hide from it. Not the string, but the noise. It had been very loud.

Her person appeared in the space between the bottom of the bed and the floor, peering in at her. "AT-AV? Come on out. It was just a door slamming."

AT-AV decided she didn't like doors that slammed.

* * *

**7. Yavin IV**

* * *

Leia smiled as she watched the twins play keep away with AT-AV. The Pitten was older now, but no less agile or alert. It was good to hear sounds of life in the too-still grand audience chamder of the temple. Good to be reminded as she sat here of the other time, joyful and bitter, that this place evoked memories of. Good to not be reminded of that which lay behind her.

A sudden hiss brought her attention back to the twins and AT-AV, who was now bounding away from them to join her on the steps. Leia blinked for a moment, then laughed and scooped up her pet. "Did something you didn't like, hmm?"

AT-AV's only response was a purr.

* * *

**8. Bespin**

* * *

Lando was surprised when, on the way back through the city to another landing pad, Leia took a moment to stop at her former shared quarters to retrieve a small... cat? "Is your pet really that important?"

As they began to run again, she nodded. "Yes."

He'd wonder why she had such a strong bond with an animal until AT-AV climbed into his lap and demand he pet her. Then it would make sense why, even on the run from Stormtroopers, such a woman would stop for her pet.

* * *

**9. Hapes**

* * *

Confinement was boring, AT-AV observed after the third straight day of being left alone in her person's rooms. Not only was it boring, but her person really seemed to have bad taste in males. This one... AT-AV didn't like him, and definitely didn't like his smell. He smelled like old, really old and rotten, fish. She liked fish, but this was a kind of fish that didn't even smell good. Not at all. What happened to her person's mate, anyway? What was wrong there, and what was her person doing going around with this other person?

Later, when Leia returned, she'd wonder why AT-AV glared at her for an hour.

* * *

**10. Dagobah**

* * *

Luke was half-way to Dagobah before he realized that he had a stow-away in his X-Wing. Staring at Leia's pet, now sitting on his lap and staring out at the molted sky of hyperspace, he wondered if maybe he should turn around, head back to the fleet, and postpone his trip to talk to Master Yoda. Would talking to his Jedi Master really help matters? Did he really want the answers?

AT-AV turned her head, looked straight at him, and then put her paws on his flight-suit covered chest. Then she meowed meaningfully. Luke chuckled and pet her on the head.

Then again, maybe he really did need to talk to Yoda after all...


	10. Week Two, UDC 4 - Irek and Ptarmaia

**Week 2** - 4/13/09 - UDC 4 - Irek Ismaren Solo and Ptarmaia Calrissian

* * *

**6. Impossible**

* * *

It was her first day at the Praxeum and already she didn't like it here. For one thing, the food... was deplorable. Who wanted to eat colored little cubes that didn't really taste like anything?

"Oh, I see you ordered the Dorsk-81 Memorial Special," a male voice said from in front of her. She looked up to find a young man, about her age, looking at her in sympathy and also holding a tray of those colored cube things.

"Huh?"

"Long story short is that he died heroically. Can I join you?"

She nodded and he sat down. "This stuff is impossible to eat."

He laughed.

* * *

**7. Unlikely**

* * *

"Why is this stuff even on the menu?"

He shrugged. "Unlikely things spark remembrance, as it were. I'm Irek."

She rolled her eyes, sighed, and set her fork down. Then she looked at him for a long moment. "It's really a Memorial Special?"

"It really is."

She glanced down at the cubes on her plate, then decided to ignore it all together. After all... the boy was cute. "Ptarmaia."

Irek smiled and ate a food cube, swallowed with a grimace. "Pleased to meet you."

"The food's not all like this, is it?"

"No."

"Good."

"Some of it can be worse."

* * *

**8. Reasonable**

* * *

They ran into his uncle as they were leaving the mess hall, laughing at eachother's jokes, and Luke simply smiled at them both. Irek sobered quickly. "Er... hi!"

Luke shook his head. "You don't have to stop talking just because I'm in your general proximity, you know."

Irek frowned at him. "I don't?"

"That woudn't be very reasonable, now would it?" Luke turned his gaze on Ptarmaia. "Settling in okay?"

Ptarmaia smiled at him. "Of course."

"That's good." He took about two steps away from them before turning back. "Oh, and Irek?"

"Yes?"

"Here."

Irek took the datapad. The message read: _"Call home. Today. -Your Parents"_

* * *

**9. Probable**

* * *

Ptarmaia was starting to wonder why anyone wanted to be Jedi. This whole... thing... consisted of lectures and meditation and more exercize than she'd had in years, and now she just wanted to collapse from exhaustion. "This place... crazy."

Irek, sitting on the steps next to her and not nearly as winded, smiled at the sentiment. "Yes."

"Parents crazy for sending me here."

"It's probable."

"We're crazy for staying here." She sat up, put her arm around him. "And I'm crazy about you."

Irek found himself on the recieving end of the most enthusiastic kiss he'd ever gotten from anyone.

* * *

**10. Definite**

* * *

Luke found his wife standing at the entrance of the grand audience chamber, leaning thoughtfully against the doorjam with an intriguing smirk on her lips. "Felt your amusement all the way from the roof. What's up?"

Mara barely glanced at him as she continued to look into the audience chamber. "Just wondering how to break it to her father that she has finally figured out what romance is."

Luke frowned and looked... to find his adopted nephew on the receiving end of a very passionate kiss with his step daughter. "Oh. Should we tell them they're technically related by adoption?"

Mara paused, then shook her head. "No. Really, no."


	11. Week Two - Extra - Dove Chocolate

**Week Two** - 3/25/11 - Extra Set - Prompts Provided by Dove Chocolate Candy Wrappers (this was not unlike picking names out of a hat for a story challenge...)

* * *

**Take time to feel the sun on your face...**

* * *

At first, she wasn't sure why he'd pulled her all the way to the open hangar doors after the conclusion of the ceremony that had been both bittersweet and joyous in it's simplicity. But... the longer she stood here, the more thankful she was. There was beauty here, on this moon of a gas giant, lightyears from the destruction of her home. She let go of his hand and tread beyond the hangar bay doors, allowing her skin to drink in the moist sunlight of Yavin's forth moon.

For one moment of an otherwise hectic and traumatic week, Princess Leia Organa was allowed to just be herself.

* * *

**It's not only okay to be different... It's fantastic!**

* * *

He frowned as he entered the apartment to find his wife reading yet another datapad. It had been weeks since war had begun anew, weeks since she started pouring over reports like there was something to be found in them that she was just missing. He took two big steps to her side, took the datapad, and got her to look at him. "Enough."

"Wes, I was reading that."

"And now you'll be reading me." At her stare, Wes leered suggestively. "For tonight."

"You, hmmm?"

"Yes. Me."

Roganda smiled, took his hand. "How can I say no to an offer like that?"

* * *

**Express your gratitude to those you love.**

* * *

In the quiet order of the living quarters, she'd had time to calm down, finally, after weeks of being stuck at sublight speeds due to a broken hyperdrive. Weeks of not knowing who had made it off of Hoth, and out of contact with the rest of the rebellion. It was only now, here on a city in the clouds of a gas giant, that there was time to think, and reflect. He'd gotten her out of the base one step ahead of Stormtroopers...

Lifting her head to look at him as he looked out one of the many windows, Leia smiled. "Thank you."

Han turned, frowned. "For what?"

"Does it matter?"

He paused. "I guess it doesn't. You're welcome."

* * *

**It's okay to live without the "big picture" in mind.**

* * *

For just this moment, here in his arms, Tenel Ka let herself forget about politics and infighting. Let war mean nothing, and thoughts of everything dark in between ceased to matter. Those things were still out there, out in the universe they belonged to, being the cause of so much grief and pain. Those things still mattered, but not right here, and not right now.

No... right now was about the moment, this moment, between them. Something shared, as close to eachother as they'd ever been. All she wanted was Jacen, in the here and now.

Tomorrow could wait a while.

* * *

**Make whatever you do count.**

* * *

In the end, it isn't a choice between light and dark. It is a choice between your only son, and the man who had led you to darkness. It wasn't really a choice at all. In an act of defiance, Lord Darth Vader ceases to be, and Anakin Skywalker is suddenly moving to save his son. Moving... pain... collapse... staring down a shaft as haggard breaths tear through you. And a hand to pull you back.

You can't see him, as looking would mean moving, but the touch on your remaining artificial hand tells you all you need to know. It mattered.


	12. Week Two, UDC 4-B - Orn and Eppie Belden

**Week 2** - 4/13/09 - UDC4 - Orn and Eppie Belden

* * *

**6. Impossible**

* * *

She'd been sleeping for three days. It was making him worry, the longer she slept. What had the Jedi done to her during his visit that would make her sleep like this? Was this how her life was going to end? Right here in their home while he looked on? Holding her hand did little to ease his mind, but it did reassure him that she was still with him, here in the flesh.

For however long or short their continued time together was, Orn Belden would hang on to that last shred of logic. It was all he had.

* * *

**7. Unlikely**

* * *

Her senses informed her of a hand on hers, as she swam back to consciousness after so long on the inside. At first, she was confused. Why would anyone be holding her hand while she slept? The last thing she recalled was a presence, kind and warm, telling her to do something unlikely. Showing her how to be whole again. As she blinked her eyes open and found her husband sitting there, worry etched into his features, she smiled. Gone was the confusion and the forgetfulness. She knew, with a certainty, who this man was, and what the presence had been. Jedi. How she knew it was a Jedi, that part was unclear.

* * *

**8. Reasonable**

* * *

There was something different. This was not the brain-damaged and somewhat senile woman which Gaeriel had volunteered to care for while he did other things three and a half days ago. There was recognition in her eyes, and a fire he'd not seen since... before. Before the Imperial Governor had spared her life but left her mind a ruin and demanded his voice box in return as payment for sparing her life. This... he hadn't dared to think what she'd be like cured. He moved to speak, but she stopped him with hand to his lips and a shake of her head.

* * *

**9. Probable**

* * *

"There are a great many questions I have," she said after a while. "What's going on?"

He told her of the imminent invasion, of how the Rebel Alliance fleet had come to their aid, and of how, among their numbers, was a Jedi Knight.

Eppie sat in silence for a long moment, absorbing all the information. Then she pulled him closer and looked into his eyes. "I want you to understand. I don't blame you for what another did. For these years we've had that we wouldn't have if you hadn't begged him to spare me. I didn't blame you then, I don't blame you now."

Orn stared at her. "You don't?"

"How can I, when I would have done the same?"

* * *

**10. Definite**

* * *

Upon hearing the news of his death, she paused for only a moment. Her husband, whom she had just come back to today... Eppie wanted to be angry. Wanted to throw something and make a scene. Wanted to... but it wouldn't bring him back. It wouldn't change anything. It would make her feel better, but doing so would hinder, not help.

Instead, she held her head high and continued to carry out the plan. If she had anything to say about it, this was going to be a revolution worth remembering.


	13. Week Three, UDC 5 - Leia

**Week Three** (May 31, 2010) - UDC 5 - Leia... and Medics... on YavinIV...

* * *

**11. Far**

* * *

Seated on some boxes, Doctor Raven Moss was content to watch people while she took a break as far away from the medical area as she could get without actually leaving the building. The engineers were working on fighters and saw fit to ignore her and anything else that didn't have anything to do with what their task-of-the-moment was. Which was good, because she didn't want to talk right now.

A few minutes went by, and then some arriving people, among them a very tall Wookiee and two droids, caught her attention. It wasn't the young man who couldn't have been more than eighteen, or the man whose bearing spoke of past millitary service that drew her attention, but rather the woman in the senatorial robes. She hid it well, but showed signs of _something_ wrong. That would bare looking into...

* * *

**12. Prisoners**

* * *

Leia had managed to stay away from any medical people since arriving on the moon of the gas giant only because there'd been a grave crisis involving a very large ship with a superlaser capable of destroying entire planets. The crisis was over now, and now here she sat on a bed in the medical ward of the base. The woman had only asked one question: Did she still have pain? The question had confused her at first, and then Leia realized it wasn't a question at all from the knowing gaze directed at her.

"How did you know?" Leia found her self asking after moments of silence.

"Past experience," the medic answered.

* * *

**13. Peacekeepers**

* * *

Doctor Moss hadn't quite expected the two men and the Wookiee to join her patient at bedside while they waited for the test results to come back. Hadn't expected the young man to pull out a data pad or them to start playing a word game, either. Raven smiled and had to stop herself from laughing when the older one, whose name, she'd been able to glean, was Han, added his two credits to the mix: letters to spell out the word "tool" and complete the puzzle of "a hammer in the tool shed."

Watching them, no one would ever guess that the four of them had only met this week.

* * *

**14. Uncharted**

* * *

The test results, when they came back, weren't exactly surprising. There were still some traces of the drugs used during an interrogation in her system, but not as severe as Raven had originally thought. Turning to look at her patient from across the room, she studied her. The time just basically doing nothing had relaxed her. It was a good sign. A very good sign.

A hand landed on her shoulder and Raven spun to find Cam standing there, looking at her funny. "What?"

"We can't control everything, Raven," he reminded her with sympathy in his tone and in his eyes.

She nodded, grateful for the reminder.

* * *

**15. Scape**

* * *

A few hours after being asked an obvious question by a medic she didn't know, Leia was released to quarters with orders to get at least twenty solid hours of sleep and eat a good hearty meal. It was very strange, being ordered to get some sleep like that when the last thing she wanted to do was sleep... or, for that matter, even look at anything edible. Sleep would lead to dreaming. Food was a reminder that life was going on, even though so many had been... how did one describe it? Lives destroyed. People... gone.

A touch on her arm and a questioning glance at Luke, who also had shadows in his eyes of things that, like her own, wouldn't be spoken of but always remembered... brought her back to the present. She tried to smile. "Food first?"

Luke nodded slowly. "Food first."

"Lead the way?"

He did.


	14. Week Three, UDC 1-A - ST Voyager AU

A/N: This was an April Fools Day set. That's all I'm going to say...**  
**

* * *

**Week 3** (07.21.06) - UDC 1 - So... if Eternia is also in the Delta Quadrant... (I blame MRFH for this Voyager AU crossover with Masters of the Universe.)

* * *

11. **red**

* * *

His head hurt something fierce when he came to, and a hand stopped him from sitting up. "No, Kevin. Don't sit up. You took a nasty bump in that shuttle of yours."

Kevin? He opened his eyes to find a blurry but well-porportioned man sitting next to his bed. "Who are you?"

The man frowned. "Adam of Eternia. You know that, Kevin."

"I'm not this Kevin you seem to think I am." He held out a hand. "Name's Tom Paris."

Adam shook his hand, an expression of confusion rippling across his features. Things only got more confusing from there...

* * *

12. **grey**

* * *

When they finally let him get out of bed and take a look at his shuttle, Tom could do nothing but sigh at the sight of the wrecked craft. "Great. Can't fly it to the rendevous point now."

Adam frowned at him. "Who were you meeting up with?"

"A Talaxian convoy, so we can get Voyager back."

Adam glanced at the wrecked shuttle, and an idea began to form. "We have ships here. If you'd like help..."

Tom turned, eyes wide. "What?"

"Just so."

"You'd help me?"

Adam suddenly got the feeling the spirits had not thrown good luck at this young man in far, far too long...

* * *

13. **white**

* * *

On the bridge of the newly re-taken Voyager, Tom took a moment to turn and look at Adam with wide eyes again. "By the power of grayskull?"

Adam shrugged. "Got their attention, yes?"

Tom chuckled and turned back to the CONN station consul. It did, at that. "Battle crys aren't usually accompanied by white flashes of light and a transformation like that, though."

Adam wisely chose not to correct him. After all... his ways were not anyone else's ways, and Tom had had a rough day or two. He was allowed his own opinions. To a point. "So..."

"It'll fly," Tom told him confidently. "And thank you. It would have been much harder without the extra help."

* * *

14. **black**

* * *

Captain Janeway was somewhat flummoxed at the request made by the strong, handsome, young man that her crew attend a memorial service on Eternia to honor the fallen. She was torn between turning him down and continuing on their journey to the Alpha Quadrant, and allowing the stop-over.

In the end, at the silent and insistant urging of her helmsman, she allowed it. After all... they'd lost some good people in this mess, gotten back to basics in a very unexpected way, made new friends, and were still more than seventy years from home.

* * *

15. **blue**

* * *

Two days, some much needed rest for the entire crew, repairs to the ship, a re-supply that Adam had to talk them into, and a memorial service later, Voyager, with Tom Paris at the helm, lifted off into the blue skies of Eternia.

Adam stood watching from a balcony with his wife for a long while after the ship had completely disappeared into the stratosphere, smiling ever so slightly as he remembered another time, long before. Had it been so long?

Before he retired to his room, a whispered prayer escaped his lips. "Good journey, my friends. Good journey."


	15. Week Three, UDC 1-B - Relationships

**Week 3**(07.21.06) - UDC 1 - Relationships...

* * *

11. **red**

* * *

When Mara opened her front door, she found him standing there, mouth agape for apparently no reason. She frowned at him for a moment. "Luke?"

Luke blinked and the stunned expression turned into a smile. "Hi. You ready?"

She sized up his nice clothing with an approving gaze. "As I'll ever be." She took his arm and they were off to find his speeder to get their date underway, Mara grinning on the inside, pleased that he liked her crimson dress that much.

Later, she caught him staring all over again and pretended not to notice.

* * *

12. **grey**

* * *

It wasn't the colorful-but-muted senatorial robes that excited him, she'd found. No. No, for some reason, it was a simple grey dressing gown that she'd gotten in the second trimester of her pregnancy with the twins that he liked. Leia didn't understand it. The grey dressing gown was nothing more than a simple frock, but... Han liked her in it for reasons only known to him.

It was a hardly a surprise, when, after their time on Nar Shadda, most of it spent either running from Boba Fett or getting gifts from beggars who were there one moment and gone the next, there was a package left on their bunk for her. Inside was another grey dressing gown. She wondered when he'd had time to get it...

* * *

13. **white**

* * *

Their wedding was small, attended really only by his friends and people she'd never met before from the New Republic and Bakuran militaries, but it was perfect. Tendra sighed in contentment as she twirled in Lando's arms across the dance floor, letting him guide their first dance as husband and wife.

Lando gazed down at her, drinking in the sight of her. Here they were, sharing their first ever dance not only as a couple, and he couldn't stop looking at her.

When the song ended, neither noticed until clapping was heard from the audience. Then Tendra blushed to realize she'd forgotten they even had an audience.

* * *

14. **black**

* * *

In the darkness, the only sound heard was breathing. She lay there for long minutes on her side, listening to him breathe in and out as she thought about the days to come and the time left behind. Of the one thing she wanted right now with him: more time. With the healing treatment, they'd been granted that, but would it last?

A pattern break in his breathing brought her attention back to him, and she smiled when he rolled toward her, mumbling something in his sleep about a mousedroid on the loose.

Mara barely held back a chuckle at the oddness. Barely.

* * *

15. **blue**

* * *

When Han found a blue box sitting on the pilot chair of the Falcon, weeks after returning to Coruscant, he couldn't help but wonder what is was for and who had done it. Opening the note that had been taped to the box, he read: _ "You took time to find something comfortable for me in the middle of craziness, and I noticed your vest is a little worse for wear. I love you. -Leia"_

Han opened the box to find a new utility vest, and smiled. There had been so little time for the small things, but that didn't matter.


	16. Week Three, UDC 2

**Week 3** (10.08.07) - UDC 2 - Miss Parker from The Pretender, Luke and Leia, Jake from Animorphs, Winter

* * *

11. **Mother**

* * *

In the end, everything she's been told about her mother's death is a lie. Her mother did not die in that elevator after having a session with Sidney, the Head of Psychiatry for The Centre. No, she was killed. Killed by Mr. Raines. The same Mr. Raines who was now supposed to be dead and wasn't. It is that revalation which sends her into Jared's arms, and with that revelation her trust in the Centre begins to crack. Her mother didn't kill herself. Her mother had been pregnant, and after giving birth was shot for no reason.

Flashes of insight from the gift passed down by genetics will lead to the ugly truth.

* * *

12. **Father**

* * *

She's been called on the carpet many times in the course of her search for Jared. This time is no different. Her father will never say it outright, but he is upset that Jared has yet again eluded capture, and yet again made them all look like fools not even fit to shine shoes for a living. Thirty minutes into the latest lecture on efficiency and productivity, he falls silent and simply looks at her. Waiting.

Miss Parker looks back at him, waiting for him to continue and very tempted to pull out a cigarette, thereby reminding him that time has gone by and she's no longer a child. When he doesn't continue, she simply nods. "We'll find him, Daddy. I promise."

Her father smiles. "I know you will, Pumpkin. I know."

* * *

13. **Sister**

* * *

As Luke strides back into camp to the cacophany of celebrating Ewoks, his only thought is the woman he'd said goodbye to hours ago and the pain he'd felt from the surface that had betrayed her existence to their father. All he wants right now is to see her and reassure himself that it was nothing but a scratch. As she races to him and they embrace, he is relieved and there aren't enough words in Basic to express it. Looking at Han over Leia's shoulder makes him smile, ever so slightly. For some reason, Han looks even more relieved than Leia did to see him here and now.

They'll have questions, of course, about what happened up there. But... right here, none of it matters.

* * *

14. **Brother**

* * *

It is over in an instant. The mission that has kept him going is over. He was in this to save him, save the brother who had been taken. Taken by invaders because he'd stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time when he'd been following a girl he liked. If anyone had told him that, three or four years on, after so much grief and pain and death and loss on both sides, that the war would end like this, he wouldn't have believed them. He would have laughed in their faces. There will be no laughing now.

In a moment of utter horror, Jake can only stare at the screen.

* * *

15. **Friend**

* * *

When it comes, the information hits her like a stone. Hours since hearing of such total, utter destruction, and all Winter can do is sink into her chair and put her head in her hands. It is relief she feels at hearing her friend since childhood is alive and well, and now safely with Alliance forces on YavinIV. Relief after so long trying to hold herself together for the sake of people around her, and now all she wants to do is be alone.

It is a day that will always be remembered with vivid clarity, both the relief, and the crushing grief of one's home destroyed for inexplicable reasons, if there were any to begin with.


	17. Week Three, UDC 3 - Mara and Luke AU

**Week 3** - 9/15/08 - prompts provided by brodiew - UDC 3 - An AU for Mara... and, yes... Luke...

* * *

**11. On the Fly**

* * *

Luke patiently watched as she expertly hot-wired a door panel. "How'd you learn to do that?"

Mara glanced back at him, a devilish smile on her lips. "I used to get grounded quite a bit... started experimenting with electronics. Comes in handy when locked into rooms like this by bad people."

He laughed and watched as she connected the last wire, causing the door to open. "Know your way around?"

She peeked out into the corridor. "No, but I'm willing to go explore. You up for some exploring, Skywalker?"

"Sure."

And so, off they were, to explore the compound.

* * *

**12. Sink or Swim**

* * *

"Found it!" Luke shouted as he kept ducking refracted blaster bolts and wishing they hadn't walked straight to where the bad guys were hanging out in the compound.

"Wonderful! Help me, would you?"

Igniting the blade, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath to center himself like his teachers had taught him, and stood up, carefully entering the fray. It was over in moments, and as they stood there panting for breath, Mara grinned at him. "What?"

"You wanna do that again?"

"No."

"Spoilsport."

"Can we just get out of here now, Jade?"

"Maybe..."

* * *

**13. Rock the Boat**

* * *

His sister hadn't stopped laughing at his expense yet, not that it mattered what she thought about everything. "It's not funny!"

"Yes it is!" Leia replied, looking at him again only to giggle some more. "She has good taste!"

"No she doesn't." Luke finally gave up trying to talk to her and walked away, leaving to Leia to giggle at him. It was the novelty t-shirt Mara had gotten from a street vendor on Kuat, saying in Kuati: _My girlfriend went to Kuat and all I got was this lousy shirt..._ and on the back: _...and her._ And it had a very odd flower pattern to it.

One time. He'd worn it one time, and Leia laughed at him. Never again...

* * *

**14. Get Over It**

* * *

Mara glared at her mother from under her raised hood, wishing just once to be listened to on the whole matter. But no... the crazy adults had to go and do things like this without consulting anyone, least of all the people for whom the situation mattered to. And worse yet...

"Mara, dear?" her mother asked in that sweetly authoritarian voice she hated.

"What?"

"Two things: watch your tone and get used to the idea."

"What if I don't want to?" The answering glare was all the answer she needed. "Right. You don't care what I think."

"Didn't say that, child..."

* * *

**15. Under the Gun**

* * *

Their parents were congregating again. That was never a good sign. Mara turned to look at Luke, eyebrows raised. "Think we can sneak out of this official function before anything stupid happens like last time?"

Luke considered it. "Maybe." He held out an arm, which she took. "Might as well make a show of leaving, right?"

"Right," Mara agreed.

They made it all the way to the door before his father caught them, turned to search for his wife and her parents, and then let them go with a wink to Luke. "Don't do anything I wouldn't, now."


	18. Week Three, UDC 4 - Lando and Mara

**Week 3** - 4/20/09 - UDC 4 - Lando and Mara

* * *

11. **Truth**

* * *

She stared at him, hardly believeing it as she lay on the bunk. He'd come all this way to rescue her? But why? And, for that matter... how? "You...?"

"Don't ask," her husband told her curtly as he sat down carefully, ducking his head to look at her closely. "It can wait."

"But..." She was silenced by a finger to her lips.

"It can wait, love," he repeated again. "Just know that we came all this way, for you. That once I knew you were in danger somewhere, I couldn't not find you."

Smiling and resisting the urge to cough, Mara nodded slowly.

* * *

12. **Trust**

* * *

Three days since being rescued, and all she wanted to do was get out of the medical ward she'd been imprisoned in as soon as they'd gotten to where ever it was that they were. It was maddening, passing the time only being able to watch as the medics and the droids went about their routines. And, even worse, her husband wouldn't even smuggle anything from the ship-board messhall. Who did she have to annoy to get a decent-tasting foodstuff, anyway?

At sensing him, she tried to smile. It didn't work, and he wouldn't have believed it for an instant even if it had reached her eyes. They knew eachother too well for that.

* * *

13. **Honor**

* * *

Five days, two walks through the corridors, and no less than six awkward introductions later, he led her to what was now their shared quarters. As she carefully sat down in a chair and watched their child sleep, he finally asked what had been on his mind for a week. "What happened after Tatooine?"

The question gave her pause as she turned and looked him in the eye. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, Mara."

She took a deep breath. "I tried to do the honorable thing."

"Which was?"

"Return to Coruscant and explain..."

* * *

14. **Loyalty**

* * *

It wasn't hard to be among these people who had fought so hard for a revolution. Not hard, nor difficult to absorb their zeal and idealism, even if she was used to seeing it from the other side. The Imperial side. These people had done nothing to win her loyalty, and by all rights she should have hated them righteously for destroying everything that had made her life seemingly important. Only... she couldn't hate them for it, not even the one whose life she'd been ordered to cut short on Tatooine and had failed to do so.

It was her husband and her daughter, without ever saying anything directly, that changed her opinion of these rebels, and her daughter whose infectious grin had led to understanding. It was for little ones just like her that these people had fought.

* * *

15. **Love**

* * *

On the tenth day after being released from medical, she found the strength to pull her husband into a tight embrace and kissed him soundly. He still hadn't given her a straight answer for how they'd rescued her from Isard's clutches, and it didn't matter, really. "I love you, Calrissian."

He blinked down at her. "You do, hmmm?"

"Yes... tell me about it sometime?"

"When you're ready to hear it. Are you?"

"Not yet." She led him to their bed, pushed him on it. "Right now, I just want you. All of you."

He saw the hungry glint in her eyes and chose not to ask if she was up to it...


	19. Week Four, UDC 5 - Puzzles

**Week Four** (June 7, 2010) - UDC 5 - Puzzles...

* * *

16. **Smart**

* * *

When Lando found his daughter seated at a table with a little boy he didn't reccognize, working on a puzzle game, he had to stop and stare. It just didn't seem natural, seeing her playing a game with another child. Especially not here, in the commissary of a Rebel transport. He was about to sit down with them when a hand stopped him. He turned to find Luke looking up at him. "What?"

"Let them be for a while. Irek hasn't acted that normal... ever."

Lando blinked at him. "What?"

"Just what I said." Luke glanced toward the two children. "And they seem to be having fun, don't they?"

Lando nodded. They did, indeed.

* * *

17. **99**

* * *

Irek stared at the puzzle for a moment, confused. "There's a missing piece."

His puzzle partner, who had introduced herself as 'Tamaia Riss-is', frowned. "How you know?"

He pointed to a corner. "We don't have that one."

She looked where he pointed. "Maybe it lost?"

"Maybe." He glanced around, noted they were being watched by that guy from the floating city and his Captain's friend. "Tamaia?"

"What?"

"Want to try putting it together again?"

She grinned and he saw she was missing a front tooth. "Okay!"

They made quite a show of taking the puzzle apart to start again.

* * *

18. **Chief**

* * *

When Leia turned up in the commissary, Luke pointed her to Irek and the little girl. She smiled before going to join them, Lando not far behind. "All right, Irek. Bed time."

"But we're not done!" Irek whined. When Leia glared at him in exasperation, he stopped. "Can we finish? Please?"

"You've finished it three times," Lando told him as patiently as possible. If he knew his own child, she'd follow the boy's lead. Then they'd really have a scene on their hands.

"One more time?"

Leia sighed. "No." She glanced at the little girl, who was yawning. "And it's bedtime for both of you."

"Not tired," Ptarmaia protested.

Lando chuckled and picked her up. There would be no arguing tonight.

* * *

19. **Agents**

* * *

Irek found it oddly comforting that Tamaia's father hadn't let her go ever since they'd gotten back with his Captain Han. He just sat there in the hold area, hugging her. Finally, he looked up at Leia in confusion. "What's with him?"

"Close call," Leia told him. "Go find Han, sweetie."

Irek stared up at her before shrugging and going to find his Captain Han, who had yet to stop tinkering with the engines for some reason. Why was no one giving a clear answer, anyway? Hearing a muffled grunt, Irek looked down into a compartment to find his Han using a hyrdospanner. "She said to find you."

* * *

20. **Shoe**

* * *

Ptarmaia didn't want to wear her shoes. She didn't like them, and felt that because the furry things that spoke funny didn't wear shoes either, that meant she could take them off. So she did, and left them there, content to walk around in her socks. This was fine until her father arrived at the party with a bunch of orange-wearing pilot guys and noticed her lack of footwear. She tried explaining it to him, that she didn't like the shoes, but he wanted her to find her shoes. There was no arguing with him one way or the other.

The fact that she'd given them to a baby Ewok to play with did not change his mind.


	20. Week Four, UDC 1 - Callista Masana Ming

**Week 4** (07.28.06) - UDC 1 - Callista Masana Ming

* * *

16. **friends**

* * *

Here on Yavin IV, her old life feels like nothing but a dream she lived once that has been washed away by time and atrophy. Everyone she knew... gone now, and replaced with new people. People who look at her and cringe at the face she wears, for it is someone they trained with, and these people were her training partners. Her friends. Her life. Her teacher.

She is reminded of these things at each and every turn, no matter how much she would like to avoid them all and start fresh.

* * *

17. **enemies**

* * *

Deep inside the gunnery computers, she feels it. It stirs her awake from not-quite sleep and makes her blink in surprise. Something, or someone, has activated The Will from a distance. But how? The receptors had been broken for years and years! She'd broken them herself with her own hands!

Side by side with The Will of the Eye of Palpatine, she can only watch helplessly as it begins to proceed with it's long-aborted mission. Someone out there has no idea what they've done, and now there will be consequences.

* * *

18. **lovers**

* * *

As she stares at the screen, silently praying he'll make it past the outer defenses and hoping he does, the shuttle explodes and fills the screen with a burst of light incandescent. She stares at it long after the glow has faded, knowing that the only chance left to stop this thing lies right here and right now with her.

There is no time to dwell on Geith's death, nor the last embrace they shared before he departed in an attempt to get word out about what they'd found out here. An attempt which had ended in disaster and death. Pointless. Useless.

* * *

19. **family**

* * *

Years and years since she'd last set foot on this world, on an ark of any kind that travelled it's seas, and it was like she'd never left. As if leaving, dying, floating around inside a massive computer, and coming back from the dead in place of someone else hadn't happened. As if it had been a dream. It wasn't, though. She knew that almost as soon as she found the ark that had belonged to her family. It still did, but the people living on it did not know her.

It was that detail that reminded her that she really couldn't go home again.

* * *

20. **strangers**

* * *

In the midst of a crowd, two people meet. One is old and weathered by time, but her eyes are bright and warm with knowledge. Her clothing has seen better days. The other is young and wary of everybody and every thing around her. Looking into the old woman's eyes, she finds a kindred soul, though she does not reccognize her.

"Lost?" the woman asks, eyes knowing the answer before she can find it.

The answer comes as a simple nod, and she allows the old woman to guide her away. There will be much to talk about.


	21. Week Four, UDC 2 - Han and Luke

**Week 4** (10.15.07) - UDC 2 - Han and Luke...

* * *

16. **Shuttle**

* * *

None of them say much in hyperspace, but it's all Han can do to not break the silence and turn around to ask questions of Luke. He'd gotten part of the story from Leia on the way from Tatooine, but... some things just didn't make sense or really add up. And the fuzzy image of Luke doing a trick somersault to land back on the skiff, squarely on his feet to catch a lightsaber, was one of those things that kept running through his mind. Where had he learned to do something like that successfully? Had he really missed that much in the time he'd been in the carbonite?

* * *

17. **Fighter**

* * *

He watched the teenager in the flightsuit climb into the cockpit of the fighter from across the hangar. There was a purpose to his actions. Determination. Glancing down at the metal case in his hands, Han paused. He'd had that kind of determination once... on the other side of this conflict. Was that why he was so hesitant to join in for these people, now? Because he knew what they were flying into?

A rumbled question from his copilot and he had to nod in agreement. "We'll see..."

Chewie simply grinned knowingly and helped him load the last of the cases.

* * *

18. **Freighter**

* * *

He'd called it a piece of junk, once. Dismissed it at first glance and spoke his mind without a second thought. Now, as he watches it rise from underneath, he can only think of the reply he'd gotten from Han when he said it. _"She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, Kid."_

Letting go of the weather vane and dropping to relative safety, Luke finds that he totally, whole-heartedly, agrees with that assessment. The ship was a sight for sore eyes.

* * *

19. **Capital Ship**

* * *

"What kind of cards are these?" Han asked after a moment of looking over Luke's shoulder. They all had pictograms of ships on them, instead of the numbers and symbols he would have expected.

Luke glanced up at him. "Hmm? Oh. Flashcards to identify which ship is what from one's cockpit. Wedge gave 'em to me."

Han gestured for the deck of flashcards and thumbed through them for a few moments. Finally, he handed the deck back to Luke. "That's a capital ship. Like a Star Destroyer, only bigger."

Luke looked at the pictogram with interest. "How much bigger?"

Han's response spoke volumes. "Big."

* * *

20. **Space Station**

* * *

He'd had no time to sit down and absorb anything before the ceremony. No time to adjust to what had happened to his home or his family. No time. And now, as he sat in the comissary staring at his food tray, he could only think of the station his torpedoes had blown up. His, and no one elses. Because he'd listened to a familiar voice and trusted. Should he have trusted...? A hand landed on his shoulder, startling him, and he turned to find Han looking down at him, concerned. "Hi."

"Going to eat that, or stare at it?"

Luke blinked, surprised at the question. "Eat it. Eventually."

"Glad to hear it, Kid."


	22. Week Four, UDC 3

**Week 4** - 9/22/08 (UDC 3)

* * *

16. **Bantha**

* * *

The wind of the desert was barely an afterthought as the man sat atop the beast of burden and fought the urge to yawn from exertion. It was one thing to use the Force to make an illusion and have people believe you to be someone else temporarily, but entirely another to do it for a couple days straight.

Why were they getting to Jabba's palace this way, again? It made no sense to his tired mind. None at all.

* * *

17. **Dewback**

* * *

Han glanced at the animal as he stepped out into the bright afternoon sunlight outside the cantina in Mos Eisley. For a moment, just one, he wondered what it'd be like to live here on this dry, arid, somewhat forsaken planet full time. To deal with creatures like that one that seemed to have a mind of it's own. Was it simpler than potentially flying through blockades?

Then he shook his head and continued walking. He had a charter to ferry somewhere else, and a Hutt to pay back for that dropped shipment that wasn't really his fault.

* * *

18. **Eopie**

* * *

He wasn't sure what to make of the comment his Master had made before departing again and heading back to Mos Espa on that creature. The boy who had helped them get a hyperdrive to replace the broken one? What was so special about the boy?

Shrugging, Obi-Wan got to work installing the new drive and tried to clear his mind of questions. It didn't _quite_ work and a nagging worry kept him distracted for an hour or two...

* * *

19. **Tauntaun**

* * *

Major Derlin sighed as he waited for the report from the medical droid on the Taun Taun, and wondered how it could have died so suddenly and what could have caused the wounds. The beasts simply did not just die like this. Not at all.

Then the deck officer ran up to him, speaking almost too fast to be understood the first time and the Major had no more time to wonder about such things. He had a young man to locate.

* * *

20. **Wampa**

* * *

If droids had had subroutines for sighing, 21-B would have been doing exactly that. Repeatedly. Did they really need someone to tell them that this Tauntaun hadn't died on it's own? Really? It just boggled the mind at times?

The droid did not look up as voices rose around it, it's focus on the task at hand: determining the case of death. The fairly obvious cause of death: claw marks and blood loss from something huge. It would leave the determining of that something huge to someone else.


	23. Week Four - Extra

**Week Four** - 08/15/11 - Extra

* * *

**Night**

* * *

They twirled and moved across the open floor space of his quarters long into the morning hours, neither wanting the evening to end. The music had changed many times, but they'd stopped paying attention to it. Fast or slow, it was still music, and it was the first and last day of the year.

Making it through another year was worth celebrating.

* * *

**Day**

* * *

Her feet ached as she stood on them and surveyed the activity on the bridge, knowing that if either of them had been absent, something would have been amiss. When he glanced her way, she allowed the faintest of smiles to cross her lips, and his eyes lit up. Then he looked away.

Watching him, she wondered if perhaps it would have been worth it to have made everybody wonder at their combined absence. Life was, after all, for living, was it not?

* * *

**Sun**

* * *

It was one of the few times in recent memory that she?d let herself relax anywhere, and the sun felt warm on her skin as she raised her head to look over at him. At his shirtless form as he laid on a beach chair. "This is nice."

"Mmm..." was his only response.

Which was just as well... she didn't really want to talk, either. Just wanted to watch him lay there, soaking in the sun.

* * *

**Moon**

* * *

"We can't tell anyone about this," he murmured as they strolled along the beach that night under a single moon. "Not at all."

"Oh, I don't know," she teased him as a wave lapped at their feet and then receded again. "It's been a nice couple of days."

"Shada?"

"Hmmm?"

He pulled her close into an embrace. "This stays between us."

"Just us?"

"Yes."

"All right..." She kissed his nose and smiled. She knew how much he valued his privacy, even from the crew. "Just us."

They walked along the beach for a while longer in the darkness.

* * *

**Star**

* * *

It was three years before he allowed their relationship to become open knowledge, not that anyone else with eyes hadn?t figured it out long before that. Smiling down at the bundle in her arms, Shada smiled. Mornings in their now-shared quarters just weren't the same anymore. It was different... new.

The infant yawned and blinked up at her sleepily, and Shada wondered why they'd tried to keep it a secret in the first place. Their little one looked just like his father.


	24. Week Four, UDC 4 - AU for Dolph

Week 4 - 4/27/09 - UDC 4 - started out as an AU for Dolph...

* * *

16. **Gaze**

* * *

He stood stock still on the street leading to the Jehar palace, staring at the remains of what had been his parents. He'd been called home to identify them, and now... now he couldn't so much as speak. Rage was building inside him. Rage at those who had called for slaughter. Rage at the Jehar ruling class.

A hand on his shoulder did nothing to sway his feelings. "No."

"You've seen," Kirana Ti told him. "Come on. Let's go now."

"I want..." Slowly, he let her pull him away down the street. She didn't let him finish that thought.

* * *

17. **Wink**

* * *

Being back at the Praxeum felt strange. As if nothing and everything had changed since he'd tried to leave in the middle of the night and ended up taking the Dathomirian woman along when he couldn't talk her into staying behind.

No one, not even Master Skywalker, had asked him what happened. Maybe it was the expression on his face, or maybe... he was running out of maybes. Perhaps it didn't matter. Nothing, not even training and listening to lectures on the nature of the Force, seemed to matter anymore.

* * *

18. **Distance**

* * *

It was like a cruel joke that he?d end up in a tavern on this day, of all the days he could have ended up in a tavern on some planet. He stared at the mug for a long, long time, wondering if it mattered that he commiserate this day by himself.

His attention was drawn away from the mug of Ale when a woman sat at the stool next to him and ordered an Ale as well. Dolph blinked when she downed the mug, paid, and asked for another. "Are you... all right?"

She downed two more before answering him.

* * *

19. **Cold as Ice**

* * *

Over several hours, he'd learned a couple things about her. One, her name was Cray. Two, no, she wasn?t looking for companionship of any kind. Three? she was having a month that rivaled his year, and just wanted to get blind drunk for reasons she didn't want to explain.

And four... she intrigued him. "I'm cutting you off."

She simply stared at him, almost seeming to dare him to actually do it with her eyes. "Oh?"

"Yes. It's what a friend would do."

"Who says you're my friend?"

"Did I say I was yours?"

* * *

20. **Eternal Flame**

* * *

Cray rolled her eyes and looked away from him. "No. You didn't say that. Thank you."

"For..."

"Trying to be nice."

A hand on her arm caused her to look at him again. "So can I walk you to..."

Slowly, swaying a little with the effort, she stood up and nodded. "All right. Guide me? What's your name again?"

"Dolph."

She leaned into him heavily, and just that suddenly he was supporting most of her weight. "Let's go, Doll."

"It's Dolph," he corrected her as he led her out the door.

"That's what I said..."


	25. Week Five, UDC 5 - Riana and Solen

Week Five (June 14, 2010) - UDC 5 - Riana and Solen and...

* * *

21. **Super**

* * *

"Catch him!" was the first thing he heard as he came home that night, and closed the door quickly. Catching the flesh-colored missle in his arms, Solen smiled at his son. "Running away from Mommy, are we?" His son grinned up at him.

Riana joined them a moment later, slightly out of breath. "Oh, good. You caught him."

"I thought you were telekinetic?"

She glared daggers at him. "I'd like to see you try to catch a three year old that also has telekinesis. It's not as easy as you think it is. And do resist the urge to laugh at me, sweetie. I can send you to the couch tonight."

* * *

22. **Bat**

* * *

"Some days I think you're part Bat," her mother's friend muttered behind her as they entered an alley in the lower levels. "And really, Riana, shouldn't you be at home rather than searching building tops with me?"

Riana paused, glanced at her. "What's a Bat?"

"Nocturnal animal that uses echolocation," she explained succinctly. "But that's not the point. Stop evading."

Riana chuckled and surveyed the alleyway that was really a bridge between buildings and the roof of another. "The men in my life needed to have some bonding time, Elsie. And I hear you have this interesting story about teaching a ghost how to cook?"

"Who told you that?"

"The ghost."

* * *

23. **Wonder**

* * *

The shapes were spinning fuzzily beyond his reach, coming to him and then seeming to fall up and away again and again. He'd nearly catch one and then it would dance away from him seemingly of its own accord.

This went on for a long while until, one by one, the shapes landed slowly around him and someone, his mother, picked him up with a smile. He babbled at her, pointing down at the shapes, and she shook her head.

He wondered, as she sat him in a high chair, when the shapes would be allowed to play with him again?

* * *

24. **Hawk**

* * *

They were on a planet far removed from Coruscant and she couldn't get enough of the animal life here, especially the birds. Everything was just so... alive, for lack of any better way to describe it. She leaned into him as they stood together on a path not far from the cabin they were renting. "Can we just stay here?"

"For today?"

"No. For the rest of our lives."

Solemnly, he pulled her tighter into the embrace. "Does feel right, doesn't it?"

Giggles reached their ears and she smiled. "It does. Even our little one seems to agree."

* * *

25. **Lantern**

* * *

It was late at night on their second day at the cabin when she caught him with a flashlight under the covers. With raised eyebrows and a smile, she joined him and together they read the whole chapter by lantern light. Then she took both the book and the flashlight away. "Awww, Mom, can't I just keep reading it? Please?"

His mother smiled, shook her head. "No. Now is for sleeping. You can read more tomorrow."

"With you?"

"If you want to."

She sat by his bedside until he fell asleep.


	26. Week Four, UDC 4-B - Cray and Nichos

Week 4 - 4/27/09 - UDC 4 - Cray Mingla and Nichos Mar

* * *

16. **Gaze**

* * *

The more she sat at the terminal and worked on the equations, the more intensely she stared at the screen, as if that alone would will an answer from its depths. Hours she'd been sitting here, trying to find an answer to the problem, to find some way to make it work. Only... nothing worked. Nothing could duplicate the human brain in the same way that flesh did... not even the captured Ssi-Ruvvi tech. And they still weren't even sure if that worked, really...

Then she saw something, and leaned closer to study the information. Hmmm... maybe.

* * *

17. **Wink**

* * *

"You're distracted," he murmured as he watched her fidget at his bedside. "Cray?"

"It's nothing," she told him with a half-hearted smile and turned her attention to him. "So... watched anything good on that thing?"

Nichos glanced up at the HoloVid unit that was mounted to the ceiling in the corner, then looked at her with raised eyebrows. "You didn't come here to talk about... that." Then he surprised her and winked suggestively.

Cray chuckled. "No... I came here to be with you."

* * *

18. **Distance**

* * *

The sicker he got, the wider the chasm was, and the more confusing their relationship became, until she announced that she had an experimental method that could work for him, utilizing captured technologies. Listening to her, he didn't understand a lot of it, but the expression in her eyes told him that to say no would be worse than saying yes and letting her try.

Letting her try and save his life... he was dying anyway, so if it failed, the outcome would be the same.

He did not voice his doubts to her.

* * *

19. **Cold As Ice**

* * *

Standing in a morgue was the last thing she'd expected to be doing this morning, but here she was, looking at his body one last time. So many months of looking for answers to an unsolvable problem had led her here to this moment of no return, here in this cold place where all was silent, save her own breathing.

Slowly, carefully, she touched his arm and was struck dumb by how cold it was.

* * *

20. **Eternal Flame**

* * *

She knew what she was going to do before she'd even so much as helped Nichos put their unconscious Jedi Master on the shuttle. Talking about it would not change her mind and he knew that. Turning, she looked at the woman-ghost silently watching them. "We have one chance. Tell us what to do and we'll do it."

Callista nodded and explained it again, how the enclision grid could be made to misfire.

Nichos made it, but only barely, and then Cray asked one last thing.

For the rest of her borrowed life, Callista would wish she'd said no.


	27. Week Five, UDC 1 - Learn New Things

Week 5 (08.04.06) - UDC 1 - Elsie and Riana, rooptop/alleyway...

* * *

21. **smell**

* * *

The statement seemed to linger between them as Elsie stared at her in confusion. It wasn't something she'd ever expected to hear from the young woman, but... it made sense, the more she thought about it. "How long ago?"

Riana blinked. "What?"

"Five or six months ago sound about right?"

Riana nodded slowly. "Yes. Why?"

Elsie smiled tiredly and started walking again, and Riana followed. "Because about then is a special day for her." Stopping at a corner, Elsie frowned at the smells. "There's a bar somewhere around here, right?"

Riana glanced around the corner. "Probably."

"Then we're in the right place."

* * *

22. **sound**

* * *

Seeing the subject evasion for what it was, Riana turned back and frowned at her again. "Now who is evading?"

"I'm not," Elsie said as she turned and looked back down the alleyway they'd walked along. Then she walked to a specific spot and knelt down. "Thought so. Zam died right here."

Riana blinked in confusion. "Who?"

"Zam Wessel. Assasin." Elsie glanced up at her, then at the air next to her, then to another point. "And your grandfather was here, too."

"Watching an assasin die?"

"Sounds distasteful, doesn't it? No... and yes."

"How can it be both?"

Elsie chuckled.

* * *

23. **touch**

* * *

Riana really wanted nothing more than to get away from Elsie... she was always weird when she started staring at thin air for no apparent reason and saying stuff had happened that she couldn't have possibly known in a million years. But... it was the tidbit about her grandfather that kept her rooted where she stood. "Um..."

"Reach out with those Jedi senses of yours and touch the air, kiddo. You came with, you might as well learn something while you're here."

"Touch... the air?"

"You'd be amazed at what it has to say." Then Elsie touched the duracrete and went very still, wincing.

* * *

24. **taste**

* * *

The air around her tasted the same as it always did: like home. What more did she need to know about it? "That doesn't seem..."

"Just do it."

"And I'm not a kid."

Here Elsie laughed and stood up. "Everyone under thirty is a kid to me, so yes, you are. And learning is a constant thing... sometimes the most important thing you can learn is not the obvious one. Like the senses and what they can tell you, for instance. You have the usual five, and one more. It's that one more that can tell you something about this place that you didn't know before."

Riana rolled her eyes in frustration. Had the woman always been this annoying? "Fine."

* * *

25. **sight**

* * *

Seeing things through her force-sense wasn't ever the same as seeing them with her eyes, but this time, she was nearly knocked out of the meditative state she needed to be in by the sheer enormity of what the Force showed her. An assassin had died here, had been chased all the way here from a bar three rooftop streets away, to be questioned. Only... before they'd... suddenly, Elsie's odd phrasing made sense. She opened her eyes and looked at Elsie. "Oh."

"Understand now?"

"More than I want to."

Elsie nodded. "These kinds of things can be just that way..."


	28. Week Five, UDC 2 - Irek and Ptarmaia

Week 5 (10.22.07) UDC 2 – Irek and Ptarmaia (…um… again…)

* * *

21. **Burn**

* * *

She found him hiding in a 'fresher unit, looking so miserable that it was hard to stay upset because she'd spent so long searching. Then she noticed his hair and couldn't help but frown. "What happened?"

"Cooking accident," Irek muttered, looking away from her. "Go away."

Ptarmaia blinked. A cooking accident had caused his hair to look like someone had taken a blow torch to it? "I think… I'm going to want an explanation…"

* * *

22. **Rash**

* * *

He watched as she stood up, not even caring about the screeching sound of the chair as it was pushed back. "Being angry about it won't help, you know."

"Irek, the last thing I want right now is a lecture." And then she left the room, intent on her objective.

Knowing she was mad, he followed, if only to keep her from doing something rash that she'd regret tomorrow. "Who said anything about a lecture?"

She did not dignify that with a response.

* * *

23. **Surgery**

* * *

Waiting patiently had given way to nervous pacing hours ago, and now he just wanted her to stop and sit down. "This isn't going to speed things up, you know."

She paused and looked at him, then returned to pacing. "No, but it gives me something to do. All this waiting… hard. Very hard."

"Had he been ill long?" He cringed when she stopped and glared at him. "Sorry."

"What kind of a question is that?"

"Just trying to fill the silence, Ptarmaia."

It wasn't long after that, that a nurse came out to tell them that her father had made it through surgery with flying colors.

* * *

24. **Hurt**

* * *

She found him sitting at their kitchen table, despondently looking out a window, and couldn't help but wonder what was wrong. "Irek?" When he didn't respond, she moved to sit next to him. "What is it?" He slid the datapad over to her, wordlessly pointing to the date, which only confused her more. "I don't understand."

"It's an anniversary."

"For what?"

The expression in his eyes when he finally turned to her answered the question without him saying a word.

* * *

25. **Heal**

* * *

They'd been discussing names for the better part of three weeks and were still no closer to agreeing on any of them when her mother tossed another name their way: Tate. And then her stepfather added another: Ackbar.

"What do you think?"

Irek sighed. "I think we need to not talk to my uncle when it comes to names of children. Not that I don't like Admiral Ackbar or anything, but…"

"Doesn't feel right, huh?"

"No. Nor does Tate."

She playfully hit him on the shoulder. "Careful, Irek. Don't knock my mother's suggestion."

"You like Tate?"

"We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one…"


	29. Week Five, UDC 3 - Luke and Mara

Week 5 - 9/29/08 - UDC 3 - Luke and Mara

* * *

21. **Wood**

* * *

The varnished wood pressing against her back was the last thing on her mind as she stared up into his eyes. There was need in those eyes, a deep-seated hunger, but she had the feeling it wasn't food that was on his mind. "Kiss me."

"What?" The request seemed to give him pause.

"You heard me, Luke."

He smiled and did exactly as she asked, and she returned the kiss in kind. It was long minutes before they came up for air, neither caring that they were still in the hallway just inside his door.

* * *

22. **Metal**

* * *

The metal was cool under his fingers as he sat there at her bedside, watching her sleep. He had to leave shortly for Berchest to do recon, but that part didn't matter. That she was well on her way to healing properly did. Right now, it was the only thing that did.

Standing up, Luke smiled down at her sleeping face. And then he turned and walked out, leaving a medic to watch him go with raised eyebrows.

The medic stepped to the bedside, took her vitals, and smiled, wondering all the while just how close the two were…

* * *

23. **Cloth**

* * *

The cloth was soft to the touch as Cilghal handed Luke's son to him for the first time, but it wasn't the blanket that drew his attention. No. It was the gray eyes that blinked up at him. He smiled, nodded his thanks to Cilghal, and turned so Mara could see.

Mara, pale and worn out from labor and illness, smiled up at him contently. "Adorable."

"Hmm?"

She simply smiled and let silence reign between them for a long while.

* * *

24. **Glass**

* * *

He was on his forth Ale when she found him in his office after receiving word of what had gone on in her absence. She took the glass out of his hand, stared hard at him. "Explain."

"Explain what, Mara?"

"The Ale."

"I can't drink in peace every now and then?" At her glare, he winced. "All right… I failed. Failed my students, failed to keep Callista here. A student-" He was interrupted by her slapping him hard across the face.

"Blame does not lie with you alone, Farmboy."

He was left to stare as she removed the bottle of Ale from his office and took the glass with her.

* * *

25. **Stone**

* * *

The steps were cold and hard as she sat on them, waiting in silence in the large room. It was odd to sit here, knowing that a celebration had once been held honoring the other side… even stranger that that thought no longer bothered her.

"I've been looking all over for you," the familiar voice said as he sat down next to her.

"Oh?"

"Thank you."

Mara glanced at him. "For what?"

"Reminding me that not everything is my fault, no matter how much it can seem that way."


	30. Week Five, UDC 4 - Need to Remember

**Week 5** - 5/4/09 ? UDC 4 - Jaina/Jag, Need to Remember Follow Up to Story

* * *

21.** Steps**

* * *

First steps taken after a traumatic incident are often memorable, and this moment was no different as she led him into their living room. He looked stunned... lost, and it hurt to see him so removed from his own life.

Before she could give him any warning or encouragement, a tiny hurricane latched itself onto his legs and refused to let go. She held her breath for what felt like an eternity, watching the expression on his face flicker between emotions.

"Daddy! You home!"

And as the surprise wore off and the reaction she'd been expecting didn't happen, Jaina allowed herself to breathe again.

* * *

22.** Stride**

* * *

Startled, he looked down at the little face gazing up at him in unbridled happiness. Something clicked inside... he knew who this was, but a name wasn't coming forth. "Officer Solo-Fel?"

"Yes?"

He winced at the pain in her voice, even with that small reply. ?Is this one... ours?"

"Yes... yes, he is. Amlyn, go find your sister."

"Okay!" And, just as suddenly, they were alone again in the living room, listening as Amlyn called out a name he didn't recognize, and he all but collapsed to the floor. All of this was making his head hurt.

* * *

23. **Stumble**

* * *

Carefully, she led him to the couch, and nodded to her mother, who nodded silently back and went to go find both children. "It's a lot to take in, isn't it?"

His eyes were clear when he met her gaze. "I stabbed you."

"Yes."

"And... we have two children?"

"Three. Risha is down for a nap."

"Risha?"

If there were ever a way she?d thought he was going to find out he was a father again, this wasn't it. "She's two. Your mother named her."

He blinked, surprised at that revelation. "Cherith. For Cherith."

* * *

24. **Leap**

* * *

Inside, Jaina was leaping for joy. This was going better than they?d thought it would. "Yes. And it hurt that you were missing, Jag. You've missed so much, I don't even know where to begin."

Slowly, he reached out and touched her still-bandaged hand. He held it, fingered the bandage carefully, and frowned. There was something in his gaze that made her nervous, as if he were far away, though he was right here with her. "I'm here now, Officer Solo-Fel."

"Jaina," she corrected him carefully. "And yes. Yes you are."

* * *

25. **Fall**

* * *

She was in the kitchen, talking to her mother while they made the evening meal together when she heard a loud wait could have only come from one of the children. Following the wail, she found Jag holding their son on the couch and talking to him in low tones, and slowly their son calmed.

She watched as Jag tended to the bruise on his leg carefully for a moment, satisfied that it was coming back to him a little at a time. She returned to the kitchen and helped finish preparations for the evening meal.

"Feels wonderful, doesn't it?" Her mother asked after a minute or two. "Having him home."

Jaina's answering smile had enough wattage to light up all of Coruscant.


	31. Week Five - Extra - Dove Chocolate 2

Week 5 - 2/26/2012 - Dove Chocolate Promises #2 - Skywalker/Solo Clan, A/P

* * *

Miracles aren't limited to the holidays.

* * *

At first, it had seemed like a joke. As if the Force had known exactly what kind of carrot to put in front of her at precisely the right moment, and if she were to blink at the possibility, it would be gone again.

Months had gone by since that first tentative and hopeful moment, and now, holding the fruit of her labors, tears begin to well in her eyes. It's real, and it's here. He's here, looking up at her blearily, looking as exhausted as she feels.

* * *

Do Something Spontaneous.

* * *

"Can I take my hands off my eyes now?" Jaina asked as he led her into the room gently. She could sense people there, but not who they were. "Jag..."

"Now you can," Jag told her.

Jaina opened her eyes to find her mother, sisters-in-law, aunts, and a few family friends seated in various locations around their living room, gifts piled in one corner, and a banner strewn across one wall that said congratulations in multicolored letters. "But..."

Jag slowly backed out of the room as Leia made Jaina sit carefully in a comfy chair. It had been his idea to have the baby shower anyway, but she didn't need to know that.

* * *

You're Gorgeous.

* * *

People had been looking her way all evening as they ate, and Tahiri wasn't sure what to make of it. She'd spilled nothing on her dress, she was wearing the proper shoes, though she detested them... what was wrong?

Wiping his mouth with a napkin, Anakin reached out a hand to her and smiled. "Dance with me?"

"I'd love to," she replied, and allowed him to lead her to the dance floor. Once there, she let him lead and almost, but not quite, got lost in the music. "They're still watching us."

Anakin smiled. Of course they were: she cleaned up quite nicely.

* * *

Be Fearless.

* * *

"This is crazy," she muttered after a long moment of staring at the door. "Why do we have to do this, this way?"

Her father shrugged. "Protocol and tradition."

"Why couldn't I be the one to wait for him, father?"

Her father chuckled. "It would have confused people, wouldn't it?"

Tenel Ka took a deep breath, nodded to the pages on either side of the door for it to be opened, and allowed her father to lead her down the aisle to her groom. It would have, at that.

* * *

Dare To Love Completely.

* * *

Padme glanced over at him as the Geonosians pulled the cart they were standing in toward the arena. It could all end for them right here on this dry planet, in the arena they were getting closer to by the second. Then it wouldn't matter if she was a senator and he Jedi, because they'd both be dead.

She averted her eyes when his head moved, but the thoughts kept racing around in her head until she chose one way or the other. It... none of it mattered, and she wasn't going to lie to him or herself any longer. Not now. Not here.


	32. Week Six, UDC 5 - AT-AV

Week Six (June 14, 2010) - UDC 6 - another set for AT-AV (DVD Box Set One: UDC 1, Week Twenty)

* * *

26. a light in the dark

* * *

Getting back into his X-Wing after the talks he had with both Obi-Wan and Yoda was hard. Knowledge was just settling in for real, and now he was weary as he closed the canopy of his fighter. All true?

A purring captured Luke?s attention, and he smiled as AT-AV nuzzled his hand. He'd very nearly forgotten she'd stowed away with him. "What do you think, hmm? Time to go?"

AT-AV did not directly answer him, but continued to purr long after they'd made the jump into hyperspace.

* * *

27. steer by the stars

* * *

It had been a long couple of days, Leia reflected as she watched Han tease AT-AV with a string in the center of the hold. Had it really happened? Was Palpatine really gone? She'd been there, seen the explosion from the ground... but it didn't feel real yet.

Han glanced over at her, saw the expression on her face, and nodded. "I know, Leia."

"Hasn't sunk in for you, either?"

"No." Then Han?s attention was drawn back to AT-AV, who had caught the string in her claws and was pulling. "Hey!"

Leia chuckled and soon joined them.

* * *

28. shake the heavens

* * *

It is a calm night in the apartment when AT-AV notices something amiss. Her person is sitting with her companion, talking quietly and intently. AT-AV watches them for long minutes, not sure what to make of it and wondering all the while what they?re talking about.

Finally, because they have yet to cook the evening meal, she joins them on the couch. Then she smells it and knows: there will be a little one joining this family.

Her person laughs and pulls AT-AV close, and AT-AV can't help but purr in response.

* * *

29. beneath these hands

* * *

Leia was sitting on a rock on YanivIV, enjoying the morning sunlight when Winter turned up and wordlessly hugged her in silent comisseration. Leia blinked at her, surprised to see someone familiar. It was strange, seeing her after... after what happened. "How are you here?"

Winter tried to smile, nodded to the carrier she'd set down. "Someone wanted you. Your father sent her with me."

Leia glanced down at the carrier, stunned to see a pair of eyes staring up at her. Eyes she knew. Slowly, cautiously, Leia opened the carrier door and took hold of the Pitten. "AT-AV!"

Winter stood by and enjoyed the reunion.

* * *

30. the path and the walker

* * *

It was times like this that he wished for an old-fashioned lantern, Luke noted to himself as he wandered through the dimmed hangar. It was darker in here than he was comfortable with, and hearing something, he turned to find out what it was. Then he frowned when he saw Leia coming inside, holding something small and furry, and a woman he didn't recognize at her side. "Leia?"

Leia glanced up at him, smiled, and he had to blink for a long moment. She?d never smiled like that before, not even at the medal ceremony.


	33. Week Six, UDC 1

Week 6 (08.11.06) UDC 1

* * *

26. water

* * *

The drops fell slowly from her hand as she raised it from the water, admiring the simplicity of nature. A hand on her shoulder reminded her there was something to attend to, and she would, but for just this moment all that mattered was finding her center before she had to go and do her duty.

"Leia?" her father asked, patiently.

She sighed and dipped her hand into the pond again, lifted it, and watched as the drops fell again. So, so simple. "Now?"

"Now."

Slowly, she dried her hand off, put on her best neutral smile, and nodded. She followed him, glancing back only once to see the pond still and silent again in the garden.

* * *

27. fire

* * *

The smell didn't register until they'd gotten away from the tie fighter scouts, but now he couldn't not notice as the young man slept restlessly in the cockpit chair next to him. Underneath everything else was a familiar tang of burnt material that only came from close contact. He glanced at the youth and wondered what had happened for it to still be that strong. What had they been running from, him and the old man? Aside from the obvious, anyway.

A beeping directed his attention to the instruments, and he sighed. Nearly to where ever and whatever Yavin was, weather it really was a Rebel Base or not.

* * *

28. earth

* * *

The ground was firm beneath his feet as he stood, waiting for the AT-AT walker to notice him as he walked out from the tree line. He did so knowing that there was no turning back, no running away. Not now, here on this moon.

A voice from the cockpit of the walker standing over him commanded him to stop where he was, and soon he was surrounded by stormtroopers, armor glinting white in the subdued light from the landing pad.

"I surrender," he said, when finally asked questions. "I am alone."

They, of course, did not believe him.

* * *

29. air

* * *

As she drew him back into the circle, back to the warmth of the celebration, he took a deep breath and wondered at how the air felt different. As if it, too, were sighing in relief after a long, dark, and windy sand storm.

Next to him, Leia began to laugh, and then Han chuckled, and Chewie roared, and suddenly he found himself joining them out of sheer relief.

It had been a long, long day... week... months... years, even.

* * *

30. spirit

* * *

The electricity tore through him as he hoisted his master up and rushed to the hole. Tore at his every nerve, through his bones, right down to his soul. It cascaded and flashed... and then suddenly, with a painful heave, all was silent and still and he could only stare down into the endless pit, gasping from the shock and unable to move.

He almost didn't feel the arms that drew him back, nor the hand that grabbed at his in comfort. He only saw, for a moment, her smiling face in his mind's eye. For a moment, he wondered if she would have approved...


	34. Week Six, UDC 2 - Jaina and Jag

**Week 6** (10.29.07) UDC 2 - Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel

* * *

26. **Shirt**

* * *

She picked through the clothes in the closet, not sure what to do with them, and tugged a simple shirt off the hanger. Staring at it for long minutes, she sank first to her knees and then all the way to the floor without really thinking about it.

This was the shirt she'd seen him wearing the day before he left for his mission. She sniffed it, then shook her head. His shirt, but it didn't smell like him, and that's what she wanted right then.

When her mother found her an hour later, Jaina's eyes were closed in remembrance of him and his unique scent.

* * *

27. **Pants**

* * *

The temptation was to extricate himself slowly from her arms, find his pants, and forget they'd just spent the night sharing something so intimate. They shouldn't have done this... this passionate thing they'd done.

She stirred and looked right into his panicked eyes, smiled. "Still here?"

"Only just."

"Then this wasn't my imagination. We really..."

He chuckled. "Yes, Goddess. We really did."

"Can I keep you?"

The question startled him, and at first he didn't know how to answer. Could she? Would it even be allowed? Was it right that they be together? Staring back at her, it was confusing and wonderful all at once.

* * *

28. **Dress**

* * *

It wasn't the first dress she'd worn in his presence, but it was by far the most memorable... a soft blue, off the shoulder with a modest but still suggestive neckline, and ankle length with a slit running to her thigh. She smiled at him, and took his arm. He returned the smile, and off they went into the Coruscanti night.

It was by no means the first or last dress he had ever seen her in, but it was memorable for another thing as well: this was their first actual date which did not involve the war effort.

* * *

29. **Uniform**

* * *

Jaina smiled and picked an invisible piece of lint off of the small boy's shoulder, intent on prolonging this moment for just that much longer. Then she nodded at his father, who was standing in the doorway, watching them. "What do you think? Ready?"

Jag blinked at her, confused. "Ready for what?"

"To take your son to his first day of school," she told him patiently. "Remember?"

"I... yes."

Their son joined them in the doorway and Jaina smiled, thankful that the boy was too young to realize his father was in a state of shock.

* * *

30. **Cloak**

* * *

He wasn't used to seeing her in official Jedi wear and the cloak was disconcerting as he watched her out of the corner of his eye while the meeting progressed. She stood near the door, at attention with the hood up, and if he hadn't known better, he'd have sworn she was making faces under there at various politicians.

When the meeting adjourned, the hood came down, and she smiled at him before leading him to their quarters.

The cloak landed on the floor next to their bed and stayed there for three days.


	35. Week Six, UDC 3 - Minor Characters

**Week 6** - 10/4/08 - UDC 3 – Minor Characters

* * *

26. **Arm** (In response to Minor Character Roulette #37: Chalmun the Wookiee)

* * *

His arm had fallen asleep. That was the first thing he realized when he heard the noise from the main room of the cantina. The second thing he realized was that he'd taken an unintentional nap while reviewing the accounting logs for the quarter. He took a moment to bark a chuckle to himself before going to see what the commotion had been about.

A blaster-induced hole in a wall and the clean-up of a severed arm later, Chalmun decided he'd rather have stayed in his office.

At least in there, Wuher tended to forget he existed for brief periods of time and there were no Stormtroopers asking odd questions.

* * *

27. **Leg** (Grondorn Muse)

* * *

It had come down the pike so suddenly that he didn't have a leg to stand on. He was blacklisted now and no one would hire him for a gig of any sort. Standing there in the doorway of the living room of his Corellian apartment, it was almost unreal. Blacklisted for an idea... lots of ideas, all of them controversial?

He shook his head, went to pack everything he could into a bag, and then set out into the streets of Coronet. There were like-minded people out there, and he was going to find them.

* * *

28. **Antennae** (Santa Claus... that one really IS there at the Wook. I kid you not.)

* * *

It was unknown where the red-suited person had come from with the bag, or even if it was one of the crew of the Independence. It was unknown... but like clockwork every twenty-fifth day of the twelth month of the year, there he was in the commissary with his back handing out gifts with a smile and a laugh.

The year that the Captain of the ship received a thermal detonator with a note saying "use it wisely" was particularly memorable.

* * *

29. **Claw** (Card Captor, stationed on Cloud City, Bespin)

* * *

The maintenance crew had returned from performing repairs to the city's underbelly with a disturbing report: one of the antennas looked like it had been clawed at with fingernails. Being that those things were made of metal that stood up to high winds, he could only imagine how desperate someone must have been to make those. He wondered if they'd survived...

It was only later, after getting news from Home One, that he found out the person had indeed survived.

* * *

30. **Tail** (Victor Jun)

* * *

Everyone seemed to have a tail for weeks. It didn't matter what species they were, or if they actually had tails. The more he thought about it, the less sense it made, so he chose to ignore the fact that everybody he'd been recruiting for the Rebellion had tails and it made no sense.

It was odd, week or two into this episode of everyone having tails, when suddenly one person didn't have one and other people walking by did. That person did not get requited and never knew a Rebel Agent had even considered them.


	36. Week Six, UDC 4 - Cray and Dolph

**Week 6** - 5/11/09 - UDC 4 - Cray Mingla and Dolph of Almania

* * *

26. **Gallant**

* * *

She woke on an unfamiliar couch with a splitting headache, her mouth feeling like it was full of sand, and wondered what she'd done the night before. Pulling the blanket closer, Cray sat up slowly and looked blearily around the small apartment's living room in confusion.

Then she noticed a note beside a glass of water, a small white pill, and a tube of crackers. The note read: "Cray, when you wake, drink the water, take the aspirin, and have some crackers. I had to attend to something and will return shortly. -Dolph"

She stared at the note for a long moment. What kind of a name was Dolph?

* * *

27. **Filial**

* * *

Heeding the advice, she reached for the glass of water and took the aspirin. Then she stared at the tube of crackers as her headache began to subside to a dull and almost-ignorable throb. She didn't want to eat anything, not yet.

Pulling the blanket closer again, Cray relaxed into the couch cushions and just let herself be in the moment. Sooner or later, there would be a need for eating, and talking, and all the things that went with living day to day, but just then, as memories crashed over her of her failure... it hurt just to breathe.

* * *

28. **Vexation**

* * *

The owner of the odd name turned out to be a nice-looking young man whom she sort of recognized but couldn't place. Cray was chalking the faint familiarity with having met him the night before, but having been so smashed as to not remember it. "Was I awful?"

Standing at the stove cooking their lunch, Dolph chuckled. "No. Upset and inebriated, but not awful."

"Good."

"You can call me Doll any time you feel like it, too."

"Huh?"

He chuckled again and they feel into a comfortable silence, her wondering why he'd just given her permission to call him a Doll.

* * *

29. **Sublime**

* * *

"How did I end up here, instead of my own apartment?"

He glanced up at her, fork halfway to his mouth. "You sort of passed out before you could tell me where it was."

She frowned at him as he ate some more. Somehow, that made perfect sense, even if she was disappointed that it wasn't something more exotic. "Thank you."

"For?"

"Not making fun of me."

He shook his head slowly, met her eyes. "I never make light of other people's pain. Been there myself."

She was left to wonder what had happened to him.

* * *

30. **Superficial**

* * *

It was getting towards evening when she finally remembered at least some of the night before, of meeting him, but nothing more than that. It wasn't so much what was on the surface, but what she felt underneath. There was something there, like every other person she'd met since starting her Jedi training, but he was different. Anger... grief... sorrow... It echoed her own turmoil.

As he walked her to the door of her apartment that night, she kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Dolph. We should do this again sometime."

"Without the Ale next time," he told her seriously.

"I usually don't drink like that."

"Then yes, we should do it again."


	37. Week Seven, UDC 5 - Wes and Roganda

**Week Seven** (June 28, 2010) UDC 5 - Wes Janson and Roganda Ismaren

* * *

31. **Iron**

* * *

It was hard to picture these people as allies for the first couple of weeks as she and her son did the best they could to stay out of everyone else's way. It was hard seeing them as anything other than the enemy, as people to be turned in without a moment's hesitation. It things had been normal, that's exactly what she would have done... until the day that she rounded a corner while looking for her son, and found him being comforted and helped up by an x-wing pilot.

She watched them for a minute, taking in how happy her son looked and how at ease the pilot was... and her opinion softened. Maybe it was a good thing that nothing was normal or as it should have been.

* * *

32. **Challenge**

* * *

They challenged her, these people from all corners of the Empire that wanted nothing more than it's total demise. She'd been brought up to think rebellion, however mild, was awful and warranted the strictest punishment imaginable. But these... people. They were different. They came from different planets and cultures, but they worked well together. They trusted.

Slowly, Roganda Ismaren began to trust them as well. After all... her son already did.

* * *

33. **Stadium**

* * *

It had been Irek's idea to go to a Smash Ball game, and Wes knew he should have been surprised at the sight of his step son talking to a girl animatedly, but he wasn't. Not at all. The boy had learned how to act around women by watching people at rebel bases interact... some of it had to rub off eventually. He glanced at the girl's mother, standing on the other side of the asile, and nodded to her. She simply smiled and rolled her eyes.

Ah. So it wasn't odd for the girl's mother, either. He wondered how he was going to explain to his wife that her son had developed a relationship with a girl at a Smash Ball game. Maybe Irek would beat him to it and save him the trouble.

* * *

34. **Chairman**

* * *

Wes arrived at their shared apartment on Coruscant to find Roganda supressing laughter as her son ran around with a towel tied like a cape around his neck. "What's going on?"

"I am Chairman!" Irek yelled as he ran past, now with a broom. "Defender against dust! And dirt!"

Wes blinked and looked at Roganda. "Chairman?"

"He wanted to be helpful," she told him between giggles. "And he's hyper."

Wes chuckled, and bent down to catch Irek when next he ran by. "Would the Chairman like to help with supper?"

"Yes!"

* * *

35. **Chef**

* * *

They stood in the doorway of the small room and watched the ten year old sleep the sleep of the innocent. Roganda chuckled softly. "So how much did he really help?"

Wes smiled. "Quite a bit, actually. And then he cleaned what got messy."

"Hmmm... think we'll have something to tease him about when he's older?"

"Probably." Wes let the silence reign for long minutes before he turned to her and pulled out a ring box. "Marry me?"

"What?"

"Marry me."

Roganda glanced into the darkended room at her sleeping son, then looked at Wes again. "Even after nights like tonight?"

"Especially after nights like tonight."


	38. Week Seven, UDC 1 - Jaden Family

**Week 7** (08.18.06) – UDC 1 – Jaden Family

* * *

31. **breakfast**

* * *

He found her staring dejectedly at her ration bar, and couldn't figure out what was wrong just from looking at her. Sitting down, he waited until she glanced at him. "What's wrong?"

She smiled half-heartedly. "I want something we can't get on rations."

"Oh?"

"Oh yes. And it's your fault, Temaru!"

He glanced at her protruding belly. "Somehow, I don't think it's just my fault, love. Both of us contributed."

"Stop trying to put logic to mood swings!"

"Why?"

"Because I want a dish we can only make if we've got time for a garden, which we don't, and-"

He silenced her with a kiss.

* * *

32. **lunch**

* * *

It was the first time they'd been back to what had been their home since having to leave so suddenly in the night, and he couldn't help but long for a sandwich… and looking around the destroyed kitchen, Temaru knew he wouldn't be getting one for a long while. No, it was going to be ration bars until they got everything fixed again.

A tap on his shoulder, and he turned to find her standing there with an offering. He unwrapped it to find a… "How did you…?"

"How do you think? I'm your wife. I know things."

* * *

33. **dinner**

* * *

Renna watched as her parents sat together and partook of the usual meal of ration bars with an utter lack of enthusiasm, and wondered if they'd ever been enthused about the prospect of eating. It just seemed so… strange, that the ration bars would cause sighing and a tense feeling when meal times rolled around.

Shrugging, she opened her own meal and began to eat. It wouldn't do to go without when they were planning night raids, after all.

* * *

34. **food**

* * *

"I never thought I'd get to say this again, but…" Widia paused dramatically, and waited for him to look up at her from his datapad. "I'm going to need a list."

Temaru frowned. "For what?"

"To do the shopping."

He frowned in thought and glanced at the half-empty box of ration bars sitting prominently on their newly refurbished kitchen counter. Surely, they didn't have to do that yet…

"One word about those things and I'll hurt you. Seriously, I will."

Nodding, he helped her put a list together.

* * *

35. **drink**

* * *

She'd come home to find her parents passed out on the new sofa, smelling of something she nearly didn't recognize, and Jaelle couldn't help but want to chuckle at the very obvious leftovers of a celebration. Not wanting to wake them, she covered them with a blanket, and made sure to leave two glasses of water on the caf table with crackers.

When her parents woke up, they found a note propped against one of the water glasses: _"Drink, and then eat. I hope you had a good time. –Jaelle"_


End file.
